Don't make me frog it. You won't like me when I frog it.

Life getting in the way

It’s felt like so much has been on hold recently, mostly because my mister had to fly out to South Africa for a couple of weeks to tend to his mother after a heart valve operation. All went well and the mother-in-law is now in good health, but I procrastinate at the best of times so you can imagine what having the love of my life 9,000 miles away did to my best intentions! I carried on with various little projects but updating my blog and my online shops fell by the wayside. I still have plenty of catching up to do but I thought I’d do a little rundown of what I’ve been up to since my last post.

I’ve joined the Knitting for Victory group at the Redoubt Fortress Military Museum on the Eastbourne seafront. They meet every other thursday and they specialise in knitting vintage patterns and squares to make up blankets for charity. Although I can knit, I decided to stick to crochet, focusing instead on making things that they can sell on their Christmas stall. I’m hoping to work out a design for an amigurumi Spitfire, but to start with I made this trio of gnomes using a pattern from Simply Crochet magazine. There is something quintessentially English about garden gnomes, and although I wouldn’t give them space in my garden, the crochet versions are quite cute!

I’ve been busy trying out my peg loom that I bought from Fire and Fibre at Fibre East.

This is just a practice run made up from bits and pieces of yarn and fabric that I had lying around. I will probably use it as the world’s chunkiest tray cloth! I’ve been putting aside old pairs of blue jeans (mostly bought for 50p at car boot sales) to rip into strips to weave a bath mat, but I’m either going to have to buy a bigger loom or make it in two parts and sew it together. The annoying thing is that my little sister bought a loom twice the size and I gave her a hard time about it being excessive, and now I wish I’d picked a larger one too!

I’ve been hitting the car boot sales and charity shops in a major way recently. I can’t resist a bargain, especially if it’s vintage and/or something I can use in one of my crafty projects. I’ve found yarn, buttons, zips and belt buckles, as well as plenty of fabric, either for cutting up to weave with or to use for sewing, but my favourite things to look out for are still crocheted doilies. I usually pick them up for pennies and dye them pretty colours (after a good wash!) and I have loads of ideas to repurpose them. At the moment I’m just enjoying having them lying around as inspiration!

I love this enamel teapot that I found in a charity shop in Hertford.

I also managed to pick up thirty vintage belt buckles at the local car boot sale for £18!

One of my nieces had a birthday last week so I made her this dog:

I also made this waistcoat but I misjudged the size of the hexagons, so she’ll probably still be able to wear it when she’s thirty!

I also made party bags for her and her friends. They were a lot of fun to make, and I loved the opportunity to use buttons, ribbons and lace from my ever-expanding stash! I’m thinking of adding something like this to my Etsy and Folksy shops.